Devil's Child
by Phoenix Slave
Summary: Gaara meets someone when leaving Suna for a few days for some time spent by himself,without his Kazekage responsibilities. He never thought he would find somebody so... unique.And so much trouble...
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters.**

**Uhm, does anyone know which one of Kankuro and Temari is the eldest? No? Thanks anyway. Don't worry, this fanfic it's rather descriptive in the first chapter but the others will be different. Something WILL happen to Gaara while he's away. Guess that'll be in the next chapter. This is some sort of intro... **

**Devil's Child**

**Chapter one: Determination**

He closed his eyes for a moment, hoping that if he didn't pay attention to it it would just go away. So it did, but the feeling left behind deep inside him did not agree and remained there for a while, making him wish he could have gone to sleep and forget everything.

Gaara winced when Temari touched his shoulder and rolled over to look at her better. The girl breathed freely and put her arms on her hips. She had her hair loose so he knew it was late at night because she always had four pigtails and she would loosen them before going to bed.

"I thought you were sleeping." she said to him, sitting on the edge of the bed. "I was going to bed and the door was open and I was afraid that... well, you know."

He nodded slightly and she lowered her eyes. Temari had always felt bad because she could sleep and her little brother couldn't. Gaara looked at her inquisingly and the girl stood up, walking to the door.

"Do you... need anything?" she asked before leaving the room.

"No."

"Okay... good night then."

Temari closed the door behind her. She really cared for him and she felt sorry for everything he had been through. He was just so cold... No one could make him speak more than ten words at one time. No one could gain his trust, not even she and Kankuro, his own flesh and blood. No one could make him change.

Well, Naruto had changed Gaara's opinion about **some** things, like killing somebody at every five minutes... he wouldn't do that anymore if it wasn't absolutely neccessary, but he was still very distant from people and winced every time she or anyone else would touch him, he was still locked inside himself and wouldn't get out.

"What are you doing here, Temari? Did Gaara kick you out of his room?"

Temari looked at Kankuro as if he was an alien, then shook her head.

"I was just thinking."

"By the way you look, you should be sleeping instead of thinking."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" she frowned at him.

Gaara opened the door and stopped.

"I didn't mean to offend you!" Kankuro defended himself.

"No, really! Mind your own business!"

"Will you two argue about this some place else?" Gaara asked, watching his siblings closing their bedrooms' doors silently. He sighed and went to the kitchen for some milk from the fridge. He had a lot of paper work to do and he liked to feel his stomach ready for it.

Being a Kazekage was not easy at all. The entire Sunagakure was counting on him to do his job as good as possible, but sometimes he got himself too tired, working to exhaustion, to a point at which he couldn't even keep his eyes opened anymore, to a dangerous level. The Shukaku was just waiting for him to fall asleep, because he could then devour his personality.

"_This is getting out of hand_." he thought, rubbing his eyes. "_I was about to fall asleep when Temari came. Maybe I should have a break. Get myself rid of those papers and be on my own for a few days... some nights spent in the desert should do the trick._"

He didn't like leaving Suna and his responsibilities, but Gaara was afraid of what could happen if he pushed himself like that. He had no choice but to leave Temari in charge. She was good with politics and giving orders anyway.

Gaara went back to his room and sat at the desk, in front of a white sheet, looking at the clear sky outside. Beautiful, but in the desert it was always very cold at night. He knew that better than anybody.

_Temari,_

_I will be gone in the next few days. Take care of everything for me._

_Gaara._

He read it again and added a small and faint "please" at the end of the last sentence. Gaara was cold and indifferent, but not impolite. It would have been mean of him to "order" her to do it, mostly because she would have done it anyway.

Leaving the note on his desk, Gaara sneaked outside only with his gourd over his cloak. These were the only two things he couldn't leave behind.

Suna was so peaceful under the moonlight... almost divine. The sand was sparkling vividly on the streets and no sound was disturbing the midnight silence. The beautiful Suna was now under his care. What if some crazy enemy found out that he was not there to protect it and he would regret the decision of leaving for a few nights just for his own pleasure for the rest of his life?

A soft wind played with his red hair, caressing it with invisible hands. He closed his eyes, feeling the sand all over the skin of his face. He couldn't leave Suna. He was not yet prepared to do so and risk its safety. The Kazekage had to stay home and defend it no matter what. No matter what...

Gaara let out a loud sigh and looked at the sky, pulling his cloak around him. The stars were so far away, yet he felt like he could touch them by simply holding hid hand out. His black ringed eyes closed, everything became dark, he emptied his mind, concentrating over his breathing as he slowly slipped into meditation. He needed to clear his mind, to think about every problem that tormented him.

First, too much work, even for someone with nights to spare. A break would have been welcomed, but not by risking Suna's safety. He had to go on no matter how hard it was. He had responsibilities and he had to get used to that.

Secondly, he had no time for training with so many meetings and things to organize and think about and people to help and documents to sign and other problems to take care of... his body was feeling the lack of physical activities (except for the usual office-village 'patrol') although his head was spinning like crazy most of the time. Well, he could put off some of the meetings, ignore the less important documents in the enourmous pile rotting on his desk (though chosing the most important would have taken a long time as well), ask Temari and Kankuro to talk to the people... and that strategy would only work for a day or two.

At least he was respected, although a bit feared because of his violent past and killer reputation. The youger people (females especially) respected him the most, whilst the elders were still reserved. He didn't care about that. Gaara was not a Kazekage who would force the people to like him. He knew he could prove himself to them when the time was right.

He sneaked into his room through the balcony just as the sky was turning white at the horizon. His cheeks welcomed the warm air with a slight blush as his hands stareted to feel as if thousands of needles pricked in his flesh one after another.

Hardly had he stood on the floor when somebody knocked at the door.

"Come in." he said, forgeting about the heavy garment on his shoulders.

"Mornin', Gaara." Temari said, rubbing her sleepy eyes while burying her other hand in her blonde hair. "Would you like some crepes for breakfast?"

"Sure." he replied, putting his gourd down.

"I can take care of some of those papers after breakfast if you want to."

"Okay."

She wanted to leave but looked at him again after a loud yawn.

"Where have you been?"

"Out."

Temari decided not to insist, although Gaara was not in a bad mood, he was still unforeseeable. His bad moods meant no talking at all, not to mention about **no** answers, frowns and, eventually, growls of displeasure. He had probably went out to clear his mind and judging by the fact that he still had his cloak on he must had arrived minutes earlier.

"_I'll_ _ask Kankuro to help us too._" she thought,going to get dressed for the day.

Gaara went to the bathroom, feeling that he needed a shower to start the day properly. He stared at himself in the mirror for a while, his eyes moving just enough to memorize every feature of his pale face, every line of the red tatoo on the left side of his forehead, partially hidden under red, short bangs. His slender fingers spread as he held out his hand to touch the reflection staring at him with the same cold gaze lighting the white skin, the same rebel red hair spread around his head in a soft mess.

He drove his fingers through it, tousling the red strands even more. There were a few flecks of sand here and there, he could feel them rough and dry on the sensitive skin of the tips of his fingers.

Gaara simply broke eye contact with his reflection and began to undress, taking his shirt off after getting rid of the heavy cloak on his shoulders. The movements in the mirror made him look again. He couldn't count his ribs through the skin of his torso, not yet at least, because last week he had lost at least 15 pounds. That would soon become visible. Happily, he used to wear large clothes.

The water began to pour on his skin like a warm, wet blanket. Finally, something that felt good, although after months of hard work even five minutes with Temari cooking was a blessing and she was really annoying when doing it. Even Kankuro cooked better than her...

Gaara closed his eyes, leaning on the wall with a deep moan. His muscles were strained and sore but the pain was finally fading, running with the water over his body and draining silently. His hair had become neat because of the water but he knew that as soon as he got out from under the shower it would go back to its usual rebellion.

Despite his inattention and the shower's noise, Gaara still heard Temari yell from the kitchen:

"Kankuro! Get your fingers off those crepes!! I mistook sugar for salt and you might get yourself killed!"

"I thought you wouldn't have a problem with that!"

"Well, normaly, I wouldn't, but we have to help Gaara with his work! You can die after that."

The Kazekage stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around his waist while wiping the water from his upper part of his body with another towel.

"Gaara! Breakfast!" Temari's voice came to his ears.

"Ouch! My ears! Stop screaming like that you crazy woman!" Kankuro protested.

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Temari took half of a pile of documents and used the Hokage's signet to seal each and every one. Kankuro sorted another pile and put the unimportant files away in a separate place. The door opened and Gaara entered. He had come late to breakfast and he finished eating a few minutes after his siblings did.

"Tell me, is this really neccessary?" Kankuro sighed, jolting his hand to get rid of a brave earwig.

Gaara shrugged with indifference as he sat at his desk and took some papers himself. Temari peeked to see if he was actually working. The red head's eyes were looking anywhere except in the paper he was holding in his hands.

"Listen, Gaara." she said, hiding her worries behind a frustrated frown. "Why don't you leave Suna for a few days? Kankuro and I can take care of everything. Why don't you go visit Naruto, in Konoha? I'm sure he'd be very happy to see you!"

"I can't leave Suna." he said coldly.

"Nothing is going to happen to Suna! We're talking about a few days, maybe a week, but not years!"

"I **cannot** leave Suna." Gaara repeated, angrily.

Kankuro frowned at the blondie and she lowered her eyes. Why the hell was Gaara so stubborn? And why was **Temari** so stubborn? It was for his own good and that meant it was also good for Suna. Why wouldn't he leave? Nothing was going to happen to the village! She bit her lip hard enough to make it bleed.

"I... I'm worried for you, Gaara." she whispered, making Kankuro hope the red head didn't hear it although he did and chose to remain stuck with his nose in a paper before lowering it enough to see the two. He was waiting for her to continue. "You're not made of stone, you know. You are already doing too much! Think about the fact that neither the Hokage or the Mizukage or the others suffer from insomnia, like you do, and..." she stopped to swallow a thick lump in her throat as he let out a low growl. "... and they still have enough time to finish what they have to do. Anyway, what I am trying to tell you is that you should have some more time for yourself. Trust me... us, Gaara. We can handle it."

Kankuro winked at her dumbly, wishing she had never said that 'we' part. **He** wasn't going to do anything. He saw Gaara looking at him and realized that Temari was doing the same thing. Damn. They were really waiting for an approval.

"Okay, fine, I'll do it!" he mumbled, earning a concealed smile from Temari and a slight frown from his brother. "But she's responsible for everything bad that might happen!"

"Whatever." the girl shrugged, throwing him one her defiant glares.

"Let's get these done." Gaara simply said, lowering his eyes in the papers again.

Well, Temari had asked for it. He would make her wish she never had if he found something wrong with Suna when he got back. He thought five days would be enough. Maybe even less. Besides, he trusted Temari more than he would have ever shown that. Much more than that. Kankuro... well, not him. Kankuro was good with other things. Like cooking, for example...


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters.**

**For GaaraXTemari fans, please read this: whatever this chapter may seem to you, the story won't be a GaaraXTemari one. You have been warned.**

**Chapter two: Indigo Dye**

A soft breeze made the sand caress his face with rough and dry touches. Gaara stood on a sand dune, looking at the sky. It was the third day of his 'weekend' and he planned on returning to Suna the next morning.

Three days alone with himself had been enough for clearing his mind of all the problems and finally, for some hours of training. With all that sand around him it had been like on a giant training ground. The sand in his gourd was already chakra infused and he needed something a little more challenging, so he had played with the desert sand most of the time.

Gaara slided on the sand dune and changed his direction towards Suna, facing the burning sun. Temari was definetly not expecting him to come back so soon and she would be disappointed that this 'weekend' had been only three days long instead of five. Well, at least he was good as new. Or somewhat like that...

The best thing about being alone in the middle of the desert was that the enemy could only sneak up on you by using a sandstorm. Gaara waited silently for the enemy to make that move. He knew he was not alone any more and the fact that the ninja hadn't covered his approach using a sandstorm was making it all too easy.

"Sabaku no Gaara." a cold voice said mockingly.

Gaara tried to see if he could recognise the voice but it was completely new to him. Just when he was about to turn around and see who dared to face him, the enemy ninja appeared in front of him from a small whirlwind of sand.

The Kazekage then knew he had never seen him in his entire life. He was probably the same age, with deep, crimson eyes and silvery-white hair, with no visible headband and with a cloak covering his body from the neck down.

"Let me introduce myself, _Kazekage-sama_, because you look a bit confused." he said, narrowing his eyes. "My name is..."

"Ronfell." Gaara cut him off, gazing at the symbol on the front side of the cloak, which looked like a weird black crest.

The other ninja smirked, also looking at the symbol on his cloak for a moment, then gazed at Gaara.

"Oh, so you do recognise my clan's symbol. That's something we could begin with."

"What do you want?" Gaara asked, trying to remeber more than just his name. He knew the symbol of the Ronfell clan but nothing more. Or at least, nothing he could remember.

"Revenge."

Gaara frowned. Revenge? What for? He didn't know and he didn't want to. He didn't look dangerous, although looks could be deceiving, especially at somebody like him.

"It's payback time."

"For?"

"Your father, the Fourth Kazekage, massacrated my family a long time ago. I will do the same to his by killing you and your siblings. I know neither of you three is easy to kill, but I **will** do my best to avenge my clan's death."

So, he was in the dessert, alone, with a crazy stranger from the Ronfell clan (a clan about the only thing he could remember was the name), ready to kill him for something he was not responsible for.

"I know you're not responsible for my family's death but wouldn't you do the same for your family to help them rest in peace? Anyway, I won't fight with you today. I just wanted to warn you."

"A warning?"

"What fun would be in killing you on the spot? Besides, it wouldn't be fair to you if I didn't give you a chance to warn your siblings and to finish everything else you might have in mind."

"What makes you so sure I **will** die by your hand?"

The ninja smirked. Gaara was still analyzing his name, since it was the only thing he knew about him. There was something about it, something in its resonance, in the way it sounded. Ronfell...

Gaara watched him with perfectly hidden suspicion as he walked towards him, holding his hand out and chuckling lightly as the Kazekage's shocked expression made its way to his face, opening his blue eyes a little more.

"Don't look so surprised, Kazekage-sama. I'm not a barbarian, you know."

Gaara didn't make a move but his face became devoided of feelings again.

"Your full name?" he demanded, in a cold voice, not moving his gaze from his crimson eyes.

"Jaden de Ronfell." the ninja answered, taking his hand and shaking it forcefully. Gaara let him finish and his arm fell limp to the side of his body. Jaden took a slight bow and disappeared in the same whirwind of sand still with a devilish smirk on his face.

"_De Ronfell... can it be... de L'Enfer? From Hell?_" (A/N: assuming Gaara knew French...)

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"Kankuro? Did you hear that?"

"Huh? What?"

"Never mind, you deaf scarecrow." Temari snapped, jumping off the sofa to see what was going on upstairs. She had heard some weird noises and now it seemed like someone had decided to have a bath. "_Not in this house they won't!_" she thought with a full load of determination. "_Wait, this is Gaara's room! Maybe I shouldn't enter. I mean, I should definetly __**not**__ enter! But... Gaara's gonna kill me if somebody else enters here and does something to his things!_"

She pushed the door and entered, with a kunai ready for anyone who might have tried to attack her by surprise. This type of attcks was nothing new to her. It was an even bigger surprise when no one attacked her. She went to the bathroom careful not to make any sounds and opened the door with a quick move, staring at Gaara whose head was the only visible part of him from the sea of foam.

"H-hey!" she said, blushing to the tip of her ears. "I didn't know you were here! I'm so sorry, Gaara!"

"Hn."

"I thought you'd stay for five days!"

"Hn."

"Why are you back? Something went wrong?"

"..."

Nope, he was not home to answer her stupid girlish questions.

"Well, are you hungry? I can make something for you to eat!"

"Ask Kankuro to do it."

"Okay." she said in a low voice, cursing herself for being such a dumb housekeeper... "Is everything allright?"

He glared at her and Temari bit her lip, knowing that she had just touched a sensitive point. No, of course everything was **not **allright, she could have said that from the moment she had seen his face and his lost expression of deep thought.

"I'll go ask Kankuro make lunch."

"Later."

"Hm?" she said, turning to him.

Gaara looked at her with red eyes from the sand that the wind had blew in them all weekend. Temari's scared eyes softened at the sight and she went to him, kneeling next to the tub and sinking her hands into the hot spring water.

"You've lost wheight." she whispered, moving her hands against his ribs through the water. Gaara was watching her face without moving an inch. The girl drove her slender fingers through her brother's red hair and couldn't help wonder how soft it was, even after three days spent in the sun.

"Hey, Temari is everything all-" Kankuro stopped when he saw the two and sneered.

Temari immediately stood up, although she knew it was already too late, and Gaara glared at his brother, making him wipe the sneer off his painted face.

"I didn't know you've come back!" he said. "I thought you had two more days and..."

"Shut up." the red head snapped. "And get out of here."

The two immediately obeyed and Gaara relaxed against the smooth wall of the tub, staring at the ceiling. Ronfell... kill him and siblings? How... inconvenient. This was madness. Maybe even more than simple madness, although perfectly understandable. He was even tempted to look for informations about these... Ronfells.

As struck by lightning he got out of the tub and wraped a towel around his waist, and just when he wanted to go out Gaara felt something and turned around, staring at the tub. At the water in it. He made a step forward, grinding his teeth, and with the fourth step he was next to the tub.

The water was indigo, as well as the foam all over it. There was a place in the middle of the water where there was no foam, but there **was** something there. Vague, but he could swear it was real. A face. Two eyes gazing at him, sparkling from under the water.

He hold his hand out and the water rippled when he touched it. The face disappeared soundlessly, leaving him in front of a tub full of indigo coloured water. What was that all about??! Coloured water and a face in the tub? Maybe he was going crazy.

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"Gaara? May I come in?" Temari's voice came from the other side of the door. "Gaara?" she asked worried, opening the door slowly and breathing freely when he saw him in his armchair, with a huge tome in his lap, his legs crossed. "What are you doing there? Is that the Tome of Clans? What do you need that for?"

The young Kazekage just continued to read, as if she were not there. Temari forgot about Gaara being grouchy late at night and stepped forward, towards him, curious about what he may have been looking for in the Tome of Clans. She stopped when she heard a growl from him and realised that she was swimming in dangerous waters.

"Uhm... who are you looking for in that?"

"Somebody." he answered rethorically. That meant he didn't want her to know. Making a few pages fly uder his fingers he let out another growl and glared at Temari. "De Ronfell." he said in a cold, demanding voice. He knew she had information about their father and that Jaden guy had said that the Fourth Hokage had killed his family.

Temari lowered her eyes in deep thought. "Uhm..."

Gaara closed the book and put it on the table next to the armchair, crossing his arms and waiting.

"I think father had a friend whose name was Ronfell... I was only four or five so I don't remember exactly. I heard the clan was massacrated years ago, so why do you ask?"

"Hn." the answer was. Gaara waited silently before opening his mouth to let out another growl of displeasure, followed by a question at which Temari winced. "Why were they massacrated?"

"Because... uhm... I'm sorry. I don't remember."

"Who did it?" Gaara insisted in an almost threatening voice.

"You're scary. What's wrong with you?"

"**Who did it?**" he repeated slowly, emphasizing each word with incredible coldness.

"I don't remember!" she defended herself, worried and scaried of her little brother.

"Get out. Now."

Temari staggered, but he whispered 'please' and she ran out of his room almost failing to hold back her tears.

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Gaara went to the bathroom to pour some water on his face and thought about de Ronfell's warning. He didn't know why it kept screaming in his mind -along with the Shukaku- and he couldn't stop thinking about the guy's face, voice and presence... the memories about him were so... alive. Like it all happened again every time he would close his eyes.

Before he could wet his face to wake up from the numbness he had fallen into (he hadn't been able to do anything in the last two days, after scarying the hell out of Temari) the water turned indigo and he stepped back in an instant, pulling his hands as if bit by a venomous snake.

"Fuck!" he growled, going out of the bathroom and throwing himself on the bed where he buried his head deep into the pillow, crushing it around his head. He knew that indigo water had some connection with Jaden de Ronfell and was really pissed off by the fact that the bastard wanted to play a little before the big fight (if there was ever going to be one).

Thinking about Jaden for a while, he didn't realise when his eyelashes started to meet for longer periods of time than normally. A sound of bells made him open them. It was dark in the room because the candle he had lit on the table melted. The clock ticking on the bedside table was showing one o'clock. He rubbed his eyes and turned around to see where the bells jingled, staring outside, behind the balcony door, in the deep dark desert night.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters.**

**Chapter three: Advent of the Girl**

Gaara gazed at the thin silhouette standing on the other side of the glass, looking at him with distant eyes, coldness almost piercing holes through the transparent surface, staring at him endlessly before he remembered that he was supposed to breath once in a while. She was small, and the white robe she was wearing only made her smaller. The same symbol as on Jaden's cloak was on her robe, on the left shoulder. The same long, silvery-white hair was falling down her back, reaching her waist. The same pale skin.

The sound of bells filled his ears again. It was such a beautiful jingle. Dreary and calming at the same time. Gaara didn't hear Shukaku any more. Bells had replaced the demon's voice with their own divine melody. Hypnotizing. He couldn't stop gazing in the girl's big, deep blue eyes and she was not looking anywhere else. It was like she was reading his soul through his eyes.

Who was she? Jaden's sister? Most likely, but she was definetly a Ronfell. Gaara moved his fingers and although the girl was still reading his soul through his eyes he could tell that she sensed the movement. His sand armour, tiny bits of sand covering his body, moved over his skin, protectively. Shukaku's voice was gone, for the first time in so many years. What had made him stop whispering in his head? The bells?

He moved his hand and placed it silently on the glass, as if he wanted to walk through it instead of wasting time with opening the balcony door. She winked, her long, black eyelashes caressing her cheeks for a moment before the blue ocean of void in her eyes came back to its place, reflecting in Gaara's own blue eyes. The jingling bells were hers but maybe it had been her entire presence that chased Shukaku away. Maybe she was his escape from himself.

So alike and so different. This girl and her brother. Gaara couldn't stop comparing them in his mind, watching their images as they both looked at him, the girl real, behind a simple piece of glass that he could have easily smashed into shivers and her brother, so alive in his memories. De Ronfell... De L'Enfer... From Hell. What was her other name? The name she didn't have to share with her brother?

Gaara's hand opened the door and his feet stepped on the balcony floor, in the cold night. The girl stepped back as he went closer, curious about what had happened to Shukaku and about... the rest of her. The rest of her story behind the symbol on her robe. Her blue eyes showed no emotion. What a brave litle girl. Sand from the gourd left inside the room sneaked around her ankles with gentle touches, then up to her waist, catching the girl in Gaara's grip.

"Who are you?" he asked coldly, watching her with the eyes of a tiger who has cornered its prey. He was aroused by the lack of fear in her eyes. Usually his victims begged until the last moment and he could feed with the fear in their eyes as the sand gripped harder and harder and harder... Now he was aroused by the lack of fear. He wanted to see her scared, to see her begging him to let her go. The grip tightened and her slow, ghostlike voice sounded perfect to him: "Ronfell."

Gaara gripped the symbol on her cloak in a ferm fist and whispered through gritted teeth: "Not enough." She winked, nothing, not even her breathing, betraying her pain, because Gaara knew the sand had begun to make it hurt. "Ai." her voice filled his ears again, for a second of perfection. He softened his grip on her robe but didn't remove his fist yet. Even through the heavy garment on her body he could feel the warm flesh. The blood waiting to be spilled. Would she scream?

He touched her soft cheek with the tips of his fingers, sand running over his skin roughly. Her eyes wouldn't let him go for a second, cold and careless. Void. The sand made a painful move around her body and all she did was close her eyes, beautiful eyelashes brushing against pale skin. What a brave, brave girl. Gaara found no sign of obedience in the two oceans battling on her face when they appeared once again, unaffected by the pain that nearly crushed her bones.

So fragile, so feminine, so patient and composed. Her chakra was a calm flow, not defensive, even with the pain he was causing her. The sand gripped harder and finally, a sign. She opened her pink, wet lips a little, white teeth showing themselves as a confession, a tiny drop of blood streaming down to her chin. Gaara bent until his lips slightly touched the blood, then drove his tongue along the bloody trace, his eyes closed, the scent of **her **blood driving him mad, up to the corner of her mouth. How could she eat with such a small mouth?

He wanted to kill her and she would do nothing to stop that. Others would have screamed, begged, humiliated themselves for their lives, but she wouldn't. Gaara knew she wouldn't beg, even if she might scream. No, Ai Ronfell was not that kind of girl. What a beautiful name... AI. And she was showing nothing of it to him. (A/N: in Japanese, Ai means 'love' and in Korean, it means 'child'.) Just as the kanji on his forehead was showing nothing of its meaning to the others. (A/N: the kanji on Gaara's forehead also means 'love')

He stepped back, his body now protected by a shadow, keeping him away from her eyes while he could still see her. She wasn't moving, although the grip of the sand must have been more than just uncomfortable. Gaara made a sudden move with the sand and his eyes closed when she cried out in pain for the first time, shivering in the tight grip with her head down, strands of silver hair falling in a moonlike waterfall, like a curtain to protect her the harm of other eyes.

Gaara did it again. Ai gasped and grinded her teeth, closing her eyes tightly, but letting out no other cry. The girl's ribs were crushing on her lungs, making it hard for her to breath, and yet she managed to inhale deeply before Gaara felt like losing control over the sand and stared at the dark shadows covering his weapon against her. She was using water to make him unable to use the sand. Stubborn little girl.

More sand came from the gourd and covered her body, but it also got wet and Gaara stopped, walking towards the knelt girl with steady, soundless steps, grabbed the collar of her cloak and pulled her up, inches separating their faces. Ai's breathing was uneven, most likely because one or two broken ribs pressing against her lungs, but her face was still showing no emotion. Gaara narrowed his eyes, his fist clenched angrily and his other arm brought her body closer to him.

"Say my name." he demanded in a freezing voice, having no intention to remove his arm from around her fragile body. She glimpsed at the sign on his forehead for the first time and he repeated slowly: "Say it."

Ai closed her eyes for too long to be just a wink and then opened them teasingly slow, piercing his with unbelievable nothingness. "Gaara." her whisper was, so weak and so sensible that he could barely hear it. Her hands pushed him away with a fluid move and he let her go unable to stop himself from doing it, staring helpless in the blue void of her eyes.

"Sand god." she said, this time loud enough to be more than a simple whisper, in a voice he felt it was for him only. Her body disappeared in a soft mist smelling like pure ashes, and he could feel the cold of the night at last. Sand god? And what was she? Before he could realise, Shukaku was back, whispering endlessly inside his head, driving him mad, making him crave for the silence he had when Ai was there. Could she really make Shukaku disappear?

He went back to his room and closed the door, looking through the glass with his pale blue eyes, staring at his transparent reflection, staring at the ghost of himself, at the monster that he was. Jaden had sent Ai to kill him? Was he really such a coward? What was in his mind?

Gaara turned his back to the glass. He could still see Ai behind it from those living memories and he didn't want to see her like that. He sat next to the bed, on the floor, pulling his kneees to his chest and embraced them with his arms, closing his eyes as her image kept appearing in them, just like Jaden's image was there before. What was wrong? Why was he so obsessed with the two?

He had to find out **something** about the Ronfell clan. There had to be some information about them somewhere. But if they were nowhere to be found in the Tome of Clans... It was all like a gigantic puzzle and it was even harder to look at the pieces with Shukaku cursing in his head like crazy. He craved for that silence again... the silence she had brought to him by simply being there, close to him, even if he had tried to kill her.

So, the only way he could find out something was to ask her or Jaden. Or to **force** them to tell him. But what **did** he want to know? The only question that came in his mind was why did his father kill the entire Ronfell clan? What if the two didn't know the answer? What if his father had taken the secret with him, in his grave?

Gaara stood up and Jaden appeared in front of him, smiling. The sand in the gourd imobilised him immediately and he did nothing to stop it.

"Are you afraid to tell your siblings about this?" he asked, gazing at him with crimson eyes. The sand wrapped around him tighter. "Oh, I see. It's a sensitive spot."

Water made Gaara lose control over the sand and Jaden was set free. "Your sand is useless as long as it gets wet all the time. You should have learned this lesson when my sister was here."

The girl appeared next to Jaden, looking just as Gaara remembered, only a bit colder. So his suspicions were proved. Ai was Jaden's sister. The red head stopped thinking about ways to kill them both on the spot and cleared his mind. For Jaden it was all nothing more than a game. In the end, he would try to kill Gaara or not, depending on how well he played. Avenging his family was probably the last thing he was thinking about.

But why was Ai involved in Jaden's game? Why was she accepting to play by her brother's rules? Why was she so careless? Gaara realised that Ai was the weak point in Jaden's plan and if he wanted to find out something about the Ronfells she was the one who could tell him.

"Coward." Gaara spat, still composed.

Jaden smirked. "Play by the rules, Gaara, and I might not hurt your siblings."

Before Gaara could give a reply he disappeared, leaving Ai behind. For a moment the red head felt like catching her in his sand again but she had chakra control over water and it was useless to try unless she allowed it to happen. But he didn't want to waste any time.

"I don't want to play in your brother's little game and I could kill you here and now." he hissed. Ai didn't move, just continued to look at him with her blue eyes until he turned his head to her. "Why are you still here?"

Her feet moved, making small and gentle steps towards him, she hold her hand out and grabbed his shirt with one slender, white hand. "Do it." Gaara turned around with confusion in his eyes, staring at her. "Kill me" she said in a low voice.

The bells filled his ears again. Shukaku wasn't there to influence him any more. His voice had been gone since Ai appeared next to her brother. What was this, some kind of trick? The enemy wanted to die? He gripped her long hair in a tight fist and yanked her head back with a hard tug.

"Why?" the Kazekage hissed threateningly. Ai's thin eyebrows frowned over her closed eyes and her lips slightly opened. "I..." she whispered. "... I can't tell you!" the girl stated. "**Why?**" he insisted, pulling her hair again, slowly driving her head closer to him. "Because of Jaden?" Gaara asked mockingly. Ai opened her eyes in surprise and grinded her teeth.

Gaara pinned her to the wall. "I **did** notice." he explained to her. "He looks at you with superiority but it's not the only thing I see in his eyes when he looks at you." Ai fidgeted a little before lowering her head. "Tell me." he commanded sharply. She shook her head and he let her go. "Then go with **him**."

Ai looked at him and disappeared for the second time that night. When Gaara turned around she was gone. Only her scent was lingering on him, on his hands and her image in his mind. And her touch. The softness of her hair in his fist. He was not going to play by the rules.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters.**

**Chapter four: The Silent Relationship**

"Gaara!" Temari called him once more, looking at him with confused eyes. "Are you okay?" she asked when he finally stared at her after more than five minutes of complete inattention. "What's happened to you? You've been acting pretty weird these days!"

"I have?" he asked with some kind of innocence that made Temari even more worried.

"Yes and you are doing it now too!"

"I am?"

"Yes! First of all, you are talking to me, secondly, you can't do more than stare over the window and thirdly, you forgot to eat and that's not something people forget easily! Okay, let's say you haven't been hungry all day but you haven't eaten in **three** days! Considering the fact that you don't sleep either..."

Gaara stood up from his chair and walked silently towards the door.

"Wait! Were are you going?" Temari asked, staring at him with huge eyes.

"My room."

"See? I told ya' so! You didn't use to answer my questions and if I'd really pissed you off, like I'm doing now, you would have glared at me instead of going to your room, so what's wrong with you?"

He shrugged and left the office, taking refuge in his room by locking the door behind him. He didn't want any visitors. Shukaku kept complaining about things Gaara had never even heard of and he was more annoying than ever. He rolled on the bed covering his ears with his hands, his eyes closing at the release of a tired sigh. The clock had stopped several hours before and he hadn't bothered to fix it. He didn't need a clock to say it was late.

He heard Temari yell at Kankuro for God knows what and then all went silent just like he knew it would happen as soon as the two went to bed. From that moment on, the house was Gaara's. He could do whatever he wanted without being disturbed by the two, because they were sleeping in their rooms and so the entire night was his. He wished it hadn't been like that but there was nothing he could do about it. After nights and nights of insomnia he got used to it but the feeling that he should be sleeping instead of staring blank at the walls kept bugging him.

Although he didn't sleep, he couldn't do more than stare at the walls or read (not for more than five minutes) or stay on the balcony to listen to the crickets, because his organism slowed down a little at night. Signing papers at two o'clock in the morning would have been a massive disaster. His concentration was not very good at that even in the middle of the day so at night it was useless to try. Nights were for his calm and peace. Or maybe not so calm and peace since the Ronfells entered in his life.

He hadn't seen them in the last few days but the memories of them were the same as always, just that he had to think about them a little more to have their image in his eyes. He admitted that he had been acting weird in the last few days as Temari had already accused him of such things, but he couldn't help. He couldn't tell her or Kankuro what was wrong because they would have done something stupid, like they always did when they were panic-struck.

Bells. He knew that when he heard bells Ai was near and Shukaku would go away for as long as she stayed close by. As to confirm that thought, a soft breeze of cold air came from behind, from the balcony door. No other sound disturbed the peaceful silence. Gaara rolled on the bed to see her but she wasn't there. He rolled again with his face up, staring at the ceiling, then close his eyes and covered them with his forearm.

"Why are you hiding? I know you're there." he said in a low voice.

"I'm not hiding."

Her voice was close and he could now feel the warmth of her body and her weight pressing against the mattress right next to him. Gaara looked blindly for her arm and when he finally found it, resting on her knee just inches away from his neck, he entwined his fingers with hers. She let him drive her hand up and he took his forearm away to put her cold hand to his burning forehead.

"You push yourself too hard." she whispered. He was burning from the inside because of the physical exhaustment and mostly because of the lack of food. Probably he was so gentle because the fever was messing up with his mind more than Shukaku.

"Why are you here?"

Ai pursed her lips. His voice was weak. It was just a matter of time before he fell asleep. Gaara waited patiently for an answer, knowing that she needed time to talk about her brother, her family, or herself. Her fingers moved caressingly over the red bangs stuck to his forehead because of the sweat and stopped on his red kanji. He opened his eyes and looked at her.

"Your brother is not going to like this at all."

"He doesn't like anything that has a connection to me."

"But he likes **you**." Gaara replied.

Ai wanted to move her hand from his forehead but he gripped her wrist and pulled her closer with a simple tug. He hadn't been completely weakened by the fever.

"Yes, he does."

The Kazekage's pale blue eyes narrowed until he couldn't keep them opened any more.

"Ai..." he whispered. She didn't reply, but he knew she was listening. "Could you..." he shook his head a little. "Is Shukaku going to eat away at my personality if I fall asleep now?"

"Not as long as I stay here."

"Then... could you let me sleep in your lap?"

"..."

"Please?" he had never said please in his entire life and he had just said it to a girl he barely knew as his enemy. Such foolishness... why?

Her hands caressed the red hair gently and she drove his head in her lap, where he pampered himself like a little child asking for forgiveness. Ai felt his fingers on her neck. His sand armour was gone and his skin was now incredibly soft against hers.

"Gaara..."

"Hush, little girl." he whispered taking her hand in his and placing a kiss on the back of it, breathing deep to memorize her parfume. He didn't know what made him act like that, he probably looked weak and stupid but none of that mattered because she was there, holding him, making it safe for him to sleep. It might have been a trap and after he fell asleep she would leave and Shukaku would come back, devouring him from the inside. Maybe the fever was really messing him up to take risks like that.

For the first time in all those years he needed, he **wanted** to feel loved, not a subject for compassion. He didn't need **their** pity. He wanted someone else, who felt the same way he did, who shared the same pain and years of self control to stop from killing somebody. Maybe Ai didn't look like she'd kill anyone but she would. There was something in her past, inside her, that would have made her kill with thirst if given the chance. Just like him.

He pulled his head back on the mattress and slowly made her lie next to him, so close he could hear her heart beating at a slow pace, closer and closer until his ear reached the softness of her robe and her chest, the place where her life was trying to make itself heard. Gaara moved his head until his lips reached at her artery and he could feel her calm pulse, stream of life pouring through her veins. He could have easily stopped that stream from running in her body, to tear her into pieces, but he wouldn't.

No other girl was so close to him before. No other would have escaped alive from his embrace. Ai was not like the others. She was not afraid of him, her heart wouldn't start beating frantically, her pulse wouldn't accelerate, she wouldn't wince and become stiff every time he touched her. She wouldn't be afraid to stay in a demon's arms, knowing that it might be the last time. Was she expecting death? Was she... **awaiting** death?

His curiosity made him move again, this time aiming at her cheek, waiting to see (or rather feel) her reaction. No, she hadn't made a single move that could indicate any kind of fear, but she did let her warm lips rest on his burning forehead for some time. God, it felt good to finally have someone to hold him unconditionally, not because of pity, not because of fear. Just to be there. To comfort. To calm. To soothe the pain.

He didn't need to hear someone call his name and say he loved him, lying of course, but he enjoyed her company both because it was very quiet in his mind without Shukaku and because **she** was quiet. Her hand moved and she tangled her fingers in his red hair, feeling it soft and rebel. Gaara went closer, barely touching her lips with his and she didn't stop him so he made the touch a kiss and pulled her warm body even closer.

"You fever is not going to drop by itself." she whispered under his gentle kisses. Gaara heard that but ignored her for the moment, asking himself what had made **him** so... docile. Although he still wanted to feel the taste of her blood, to see her broken, dead, because she was the enemy, she could have betrayed him.

Just the thought of betrayal made him bite her lower lip, blood staining his lips with the taste of her life. She hadn't even blinked. Blood was on her lip and Gaara licked it all, then sneaked his tongue in her mouth, hungry for more. Before he could know it he was over her body, looking at her through the darkness, maybe weakened by the fever but certainly not mentally affected by it. He knew what he wanted and no fever was intoxicating his will. Only Ai.

"Mine!" he hissed, looking in her eyes and dragging her into another deep kiss, feeling the curves of her body through the white robe. "Not your family's, not your brother's, just **mine**!"

His sand armour went back into the gourd, leaving his body an easy target, claiming **her** body as his own, leaving his kisses everywhere he could find a spot he had missed and because he didn't know exactly which spot he had missed he was kissing her freely and she kept her fingers running through his hair, the blood on her lower lip waiting for him to come back, for his hunger and greed to feed with it.

Gaara stopped to catch his breathing and fell next to her. Ai kissed him back lightly and buried her face in his neck, knowing that he was already asleep. In the morning, when he would open his eyes, he would only find the mist in which she used to disappear. The fever was going to keep him in bed for some days and she was going to have a lot of trouble. At home.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters.**

**Chapter five: The Spider, the Crone and the Girl**

Ai moved her foot into the clear water, looking at the colored fish swiming in it. Her white robe was on the grass, next to her, folded carefully. She was wearing a simple white kimono over her bare skin. Behind her was a small old fashioned japanese house in which the light of the setting sun was entering through the paper walls, sinking it in redness.

The girl entered the water and knelt on the soft sand on the bottom, closing her eyes in meditation. She poured some water on her face and stared at the red flowers on the edge of the pond. She could have stayed there for hours, staring at them. Just like those flowers, she knew that she was being carefully watched.

A spider web formed various geometrical forms between two branches of the maple tree next to the lake. Ai turned her head to it, glimpsing at the way the light fell on the thin threads, at the way they moved under the slight breeze. At the way the absence of the architect that had designed such a fragile piece of art made her shiver in the cold water.

"Something wrong, _Ai_?" the voice of an old lady came from the house, pronouncing ther name with a diferent tone than the rest of the sentence.

"No... oba-chan." the girl murmured humbly, blinking to chase away the irritation in her eyes. The old woman always stood behind a paper screen and neither her nor Jaden were allowed to see her. She never asked for anything but she did give the two orders. Most of the time.

"But you are troubled, my child."

Ai turned towards the house and opened her deep blue eyes, feeling the woman's eyes on her. Her lips departed, she wanted to say something but stopped, words becoming silent on their way out.

"Yes, _Ai_? Is there something you want to tell me?"

The way her grandmother uttered her name... the way she always seemed to mock its meaning, the way she seemed to despise her mother's last wish to name her baby girl Ai...

"N-no. Oba-chan." she mumbled slowly, knowing that her grandmother would hear even the smallest whisper, that she could even hear what the dead whispered to one another in the cemetery.

"You know you cannot hide **anything** from me. Tell oba-chan what's wrong, dear child."

"Leave her, oba-san. You know she's stubborn."

Ai turned around and stood up in the water, one of her hands curled up into a fist at her chest, looking at Jaden who was lying on a branch in the maple tree, looking down at her with his crimson eyes. Wasn't she beautiful? The kimono was wet, transparent because of the water, following her curves exactly, showing her body through a waterfall of white purity.

He jumped off the branch in the grass and gripped Ai's wrist, pulling her close to him with a hard tug, gazing into her emotionless eyes with a devilish smirk playing on his lips. She staggered in the water but let her body against his, soaking his white cloak.

"You belong to me, my snow-white queen." he whispered to her, letting go of her wrist. "Don't you forget that." Jaden warned her, placing a finger on her lower lip, on the wound.

She nodded slightly and he went inside the house. Ai staggered backwards but kept herself stable until she turned around to the same spider web she had seen minutes earlier, staring at the colored spider hanging to an invisible thread inches below the web. An eye was moving on its back, blending with the colors on the insects body. The girl let herself into the water and her body floated on its surface, hair spread around her in a silvery mess.

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"Is he better?" Kankuro asked Temari immediately after entering the mansion with his clothes dirty with dust from the last mission he had been into. The girl shook her head, carrying a washbowl in her arms.

"He's awake, but the fever won't drop. He might fall asleep again because of that and someone has to stay with him permanently. God, how could he be so stubborn and refuse to eat? Kankuro, go stay with him until I get another washbowl full of cold water and then go get those clothes changed."

"Sure, sis. It'll be my _pleasure._" he hissed, heading towards Gaara's room.

He pushed the door open and saw the Kazekage in his bed, his eyes barely opened, staring at the ceiling, sweat making his hair stick to his white forehead in a bloody mess, cheeks burning because of the high fever. Kankuro went closer and frowned, putting his arm on his brother's shoulder:

"Stay awake, Gaara."

The Kazekage gave him a tired look, frowning invisible eyebrows. Probably Shukaku was a pain in the ass, like usually. Why couldn't the one-tailed beast's chakra heal him? He raised an eyebrow and decided to ask Gaara.

"Why isn't Shukaku healing you instead of giving you a headache?"

How could Gaara explain to him that Shukaku was angry with him for the fact that it had been chased away everytime Ai had been there and it refused to heal him unless he was going to be very very close to death and just to save its own ass? He didn't want to answer that so he closed his eyes, hoping that Kankuro would give up and go away. Where the hell was Temari when he needed her?

"Don't pretend you didn't hear me." the puppeteer said bluntly.

"I'm not pretending. I'm ignoring you." the answer came through gritted teeth, making Kankuro step back.

"Kankuro! Don't make him angry! He's weak enough even without you pissing him off!" Temari's voice came to his ears. "Go change those clothes and have a bath before I throw you out of the house!"

The ninja went out muttering curses and she sat on the chair, taking the towel out of the cold water and placing it on her brother's burning forehead, looking at him with her green eyes. She wiped away the sweat and let the coldness on his forehead, hoping that it would be enough (along with the other frozen towels she had wrapped around him) to make the fever go down. With or without it, he still needed to sleep after such a hard fight with illness. What could he do? The Shukaku was not going to miss such an oportunity.

"What if..."

"No." he cut her off tiredly. "Just leave me, Temari." Gaara asked her in a low voice. Temari sighed.

"O-okay. Please don't fall asleep, Gaara."

He watched her with his pale blue eyes and she went out of his room. Gaara threw the towel on his forehead away angrily, getting out of bed and getting himself rid of the other cold towels, throwing the shirt on the floor and letting his body fall on the bed. The candle burning on the bedside table melted and let the room drown in darkness. He yelled at Shukaku to shut up and the beast didn't, so he growled and closed his eyes tightly, drops of sweat running along his temples like tears as he went to the balcony door, wanting to go outside and wake up in the freezing air.

"What's wrong, Kazekage-sama?" Jaden's well known voice made him wince and turn around. He was sitting on Gaara's bed. "Afraid to sleep?"

The Kazekage watched him with careful eyes as he walked towards him with steady paces, his cloak rustling around his body.

"I am going to attack Suna."

The news fell like the sky over Gaara but he managed to remain calm.

"I don't know when, but I will, soon. I wanted you to be prepared for this."

"I doubt you have an army."

"I don't. I will attack Suna all by myself."

Was he really crazy? Attack Suna by himself? What kind of fight was that going to be? There were hundreds of jonins and chunins in Suna! How was he planning to kill them all?

"Why are you doing this to Ai?" Gaara asked looking in Jaden's eyes.

"She is **mine**. She will do whatever I ask her to do."

"She's your sister."

"**Exactly.**" Jaden smirked, laughing like a maniac while his body disappeared into whirlwind of sand.

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Ai let a cherry rest on her tongue before biting it to feel the bloody flavour she liked so much. She could hear her grandmother spinning thread behind her paper screen while waiting for Jaden to come back. The girl felt the cherry's juice escaping through the corner of her mouth and licked it with her pink tongue.

"You lied to me, _Ai_."

She bit another cherry, closing her eyes with a lazy move of her eyelids. Eyelashes brushed heavily against her cheeks before she opened them again, with the same lazy move. She stared at the colored spider on his web and lay on the wooden floor, placing another cherry on her red lips.

"Will you not talk to your oba-chan?"

Ai opened her lips and the cherry fell inside her mouth were it was torn apart into a bloody dead clone of the beautiful fruit it had been. She glimpsed at the ceiling and let her eyelashes meet again in a black embrace of inaudible rustles. The spinning thread stopped as if the old woman was trying to overhear some of Ai's thoughts.

"You're just like your mother, child." the woman spoke. "She used to be just as stubborn and unwilling like you. Do you know why she died?"

Another cherry spilled it's tasty blood in the girl's mouth.

"Her ignorance led to her premature death. She became useless once she finished giving you the food you needed to grow up strong. She betrayed our family and that was her death. Will you follow her in death, little _Ai_? Will you dare betray our family with that worthless Kazekage? Once he finishes with you he'll drop you like a useless rag. In the end you will come back to us, to your family, child. What makes you think Jaden will accept you then?"

Ai's arm fell limp on the wood with a simple thud. The cherries in her hand rolled all over the floor, one of them getting under the paper screen behind which the woman hid from the eyes of her nephews.

"Aaaah..." she moaned. "Cherries. You like cherries very much, isn't that right, _Ai_?"

The girl saw the spider hanging over her body and stood up, going to the edge of the perfectly clear pond. She entered the cold water and remained unmoved, watching the fish with cold eyes.

"Remember what Jaden told you, child." her grandmother scolded her gently from inside the house. Ai took a fish with her hands and took it inside, where she put it on the wooden floor to see it struggle for its life under her eyes and the spider's only eye on its colored back.

"My lover, my blood..." Ai whispered, resting her head on her arms while the little fish kept gamboling on the floor.

"**Exactly, **_**Ai**_ Keep that in your mind, child, and you won't get lost."

Ai closed her eyes as the fish stopped moving. Lost in the lies of her family, in the promises and words of love, in the history of so many years? No, she would certainly not get lost in all that. Jaden looked at the girl with his red eyes, studying every detail of her small body, every fold of her white kimono. Every strand of her silvery-white hair spread all over the floor, each and every slender finger protecting the dead little fish in front of her.

He knew she was aware of his presence but she refused to show him any sign of consciousness. What had the old crone said to her now? How come an old person from **his** family could be stupid enough to make Ai become like a statue again? He could have gotten rid of her feelings for Gaara without his grandmother's annoying intervention. Now it was going to twice as hard.


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters.**

**Sorry for any kind of errors. I'm writing two stories, I have to go to school and do stupid useless homework and I don't have enough time to read these chapters again before posting them... I know I have lots of mistakes. I hope you'll understand what this whole thing is all about. **

**Chapter six: Dusk**

"What's up, Temari? You look pretty messed up today!" Kankuro whispered to her ear as low as he could because Gaara had been edgy all morning and he didn't want him more than just 'edgy'.

"N-nothing." she replied in the same low voice. "I have a bad feeling..."

"About what?"

She shrugged and glimpsed towards Gaara who was struggling to finish reading another 'important document'.

"Oh, I see." he sighed. "Yeah, well, he's been acting **very** weird lately. I wonder what-"

"You slanderer hags." Gaara muttered, without even looking at them.

The two immediately went back to their work, both blushing in embarrassment. Gaara continued to read with bored eyes. Yup, his brother and sister, his own flesh and blood, dared to speak like that about him in his presence, probably thinking that he was deaf or stupid enough not to hear... foolish siblings. He should have taught them a lesson, but luckily for them, Gaara was not in the mood no do so.

After his fever dropped, Gaara had returned to his usual behavior, quiet and moody, glaring at anybody if they pissed him off, grawling from time to time if he didn't like something and barely stopping himself from killing... just like before.

Not that he wasn't thinking about Ai any more. He still had her in his mind every night, when he sat on the roof, staring lost at the stars. Gaara couldn't stop wondering how could she and her brother complete each other so well. So different and yet, so alike when together. What was the big secret of their clan, behind a forced relationship? The reason for being massacrated by the Fourth Kazekage? Their bloodline limit? Any other memebers alive?

The lines of the document in his hands started to merge, the letters became a whirlpool of black dots and tiny curves, a language impossible to understand, twisting and rippling under his gaze soundlessly. He rose his eyes to see if his siblings had noticed anything but they were working at their mission reports, finally doing something useful. Gaara lowered his head in the paper and wasn't surprised to see an elegant handwriting appearing. He almost let out a small chuckle.

"Tonight your family and home will be destroyed just like mine were destroyed by your father. Sins go by the blood. Jaden de Ronfell."

Temari and Kankuro watched him walking out of the room with a paper in his hands. They looked at each other, shrugged, turned back to their papers and suddenly winced with their eyes popped out:

"WAS GAARA SMILING?!?!?"

Gaara slammed the door of his room and sat at his desk, staring at the message on the paper. It had begun to fade, probably because it was some sort of chakra trick and Jaden didn't want to use too much of his precious chakra writing messages to his enemy. Why **was** he doing it anyway? It seemed so stupid and... improper. Why tell the enemy about somthing as precious as a surprise attack? Of course, Gaara could have always scanned the desert to find Jaden but this guy was making it all too easy. WHY?

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It was just a matter of time before Gaara announced every jonin and chunin in the village that enemy forces were on their way to Suna and told Kankuro and Temari to take every other person, including the genins, to the underground chambers, where they would be safe, hundreds of metres below the village. Before the sunset he changed his mind and ordered **everybody** to go underground for the rest of the night.

The ninjas stared at him in confusion but one simple glare was enough to mobilise them all. Temari and Kankuro wanted to stay behind and help their brother, but Gaara shook his head, looking at the setting sun.

"This is my fight."

"So..." Temari muttered, looking inquiringly at Kankuro, who shrugged and let out a loud sigh that Gaara didn't bother pay attention to.

"Yes?" he asked, patiently.

"You know you've been acting strange lately. Has this something gotta do with it?"

The red head looked at her and nodded slightly. He hadn't had a problem lying to them but telling them the truth would have probably become a challenge. They were worried, they wanted only what was best for him and they cared. How could he lie to them?

"I'll tell you later." he mumbled, turning his face towards the sun on the highest tower in Suna.

Temari and Kankuro nodded and looked at their little brother one more time. They were afraid for him, even with the power of the Shukaku burning inside him, they still feared for his life, even with his class as a ninja, they still couldn't be sure he would be able to face the enemy by himself. Anyway, who was the enemy? That was a question he had to answer after that night. Would he survive to tell them what was it all about?

Gaara felt their chakra patterns moving off and closed his eyes, concentrating on the world of sand around him, seeing and feeling through every grain of sand, trying to see the location of his enemy. He frowned and opened his eyes. The desert was just as it should be. Empty. Where was he hiding?

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God, she was so beautiful when she was meditating. She seemed so peaceful and untouched by the sins of her blood. Unaffected by the real world. Shadows falling on her wet hair and kimono, showing her skin through the semi-transparent material. He wondered what thoughts ran through her head at that time of the day, when she stood for hours in the freezing water without moving a muscle to show that she felt the cold.

The spider's moving eye on his back watched her too from his piece of delicate art. Their grandmother was spinning thread again. He wondered if Ai was ever going to end up like her, hiding behind a paper screen, spinning thread all day long, giving orders and expecting them to be followed exactly. No, his sister was not like oba-san and she could never be like the old woman. He didn't want her to be like their grandmother.

He was not going to fight with Gaara just to follows the crone's orders. He was doing it to have Ai only to himself. Jaden knew he was a selfish person and he hated himself for that but there was nothing he could change. He went inside the house and knelt in front of the screen paper on which his grandmother's figure was just a slightly moving shadow.

"Are you ready, Jaden?" she asked, continuing her work.

"Yes, I am, oba-san."

"Prove to Sabaku no Gaara that you are worthy to avenge your family and take his place as a Kazekage! Kill him. I will make sure _Ai_ will be there when you kill him."

Jaden frowned.

"Don't..." he murmured. "You'll ruin everything I have struggled for all these years! I have worked so hard to earn her trust and you are about to ruin everything for your own pleasure?"

"_**Ai**_** will be there, Jaden.**"

The old woman had stopped spinning thread, waiting for him to become obedient again, whether he liked it or not.

"I'm waiting, my boy."

Jaden bit his lip and closed his eyes, breathing slowly.

"I will do everything you ask me to... oba-san."

He stood up and went out of the house, the atmosphere inside becoming almost unbearable. Ai was still in the pond, meditating, unaware of what the hag was planning. He didn't like the idea of her being there, but he loved the idea of killing Gaara and that would be enough for him to follow his heart. Not for that old hag that didn't have much time left to hang around and breath their air once he took Gaara's place as the Kazekage, not for Ai, who would probably not speak to him for the rest of her life, not for the rest of his family's members, who were resting in their unmarked graves, somewhere in the desert. For himself.

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Gaara opened his eyes. Jaden was right in front of him, on the village's main street, composed and light hearted. His white cloak was rustling in the cold breeze of the sunset.

"I'm happy that my message made you take everybody to safety. I wouldn't like to harm any innocent people." the ninja sneered. "However, I will make some changes around here once I become a Kazekage."

"Over my dead body."

"Exactly, Gaara-sama. You see, I will take your life for those of the villagers. What do you think about that? Do you want to do this the hard way or the easy way?"

"None." the red head answered angrily. "You will not become a Kazekage."

Jaden smiled.

"Well then, I suppose you want it the hard way. So be it."

Before Gaara could do something Jaden's hands were moving increadibly fast through some hand signs and his chakra flew across the entire village into a blast of energy. The Kazekage had a feeling that it meant something bad just by the way it had started. He started his own jutsu, trying to capture the ninja in his sand and strangle him, but he didn't finish what he had started.

Now he could see them. There were hundreds of them, thousands, creatures looking like skeletons with neon green lights burning in the dark holes that were supposed to be their eyes once. He was surrounded and held by all four limbs, while one of those creatures was gently moving it's fingers, simple cold bones, along his cheek. The crowd of skeletons stepped aside to allow Jaden to go towards Gaara at a steady pace.

"My chakra is burning in all of them and they are too many for you to face. I will give you one more chance. Give up."

"You are too confident." Gaara spat, using taijutsu to get rid of those annoying beings (or not so very 'beings') and get to Jaden.

"Am I?" the other ninja asked in a mocking voice while Gaara had to deal with four large chains around his wrists and ankles holding him in place with their ridiculously unbearable wheight, while four skeletons on bone horses walked slowly around him, the chains making his entire body unable to move. "What is this, Gaara-sama? I though you could do a lot more than that."

Gaara's sand immediately gushed out of his gourd and destroyed all the skeletond around him, including the four on horses and their chains, setting him free. With all the chakra in those skeletons, Jaden still looked like he had just started the fight. He hadn't even started to sweat.

"That's more like it." he muttered, jumping back from a direct hit of the Kazekage's sand. "So, where are they?"

The red head shook his head stubbornly, concentrating on hitting him. Damn, the bastard looked like he was dancing while dodging the sand's hits.

"Not in the desert, I believe. They couldn't stay a whole night out there with all those hungry animals and they are certainly not in the village."

Jaden leaped into the air and went back straight to the ground, hitting it with his fist and making a big crater in the earth.

"Underground, I believe?" he asked with a sneer, seeing Gaara's expression of hatred and determination.

Skeletons attacked the Kazekage from everywhere, stopping him again from using any jutsu. He was losing time. Jaden was not going to play with him like that forever. It was hard to believe that he had so much chakra inside to keep those undead animated and control them at the same time. Gaara dodged an attack and realised that he needed to move fast in order to be able to attack Jaden with more than just chakra infused sand.

He started the hand signs again but this time he stopped because of something else. Skeletons wrapped around him tightly, almost preventing him from breathing, but Jaden decided to have a little fun before finishing with him.

"I played with you enough." he sneered. "I thought you would prove to be a greater challenge knowing that you are a Kazekage. I was wrong I guess..."

Bells were jingling in his head too loud for him to hear what Jaden was saying to him, although it couldn't be less annoying than the rest of his talking. Damn, he wished he had the courage to scream because it was unbearable. Bells were Ai's sign. What was happening? Was she there? He didn't feel her chakra. He opened his eyes to dodge a heavy blow in the last moment and fell in the dust, being immediately back on his feet, resisting Jaden's taijutsu with some effort.

He couldn't concentrate on anything else with all that noise in his head and got a kick in the ribs, feeling two or three breaking under the powerfull hit and barely landing on one side, feeling the pain going through his entire body like wild lightnings. Bells continued to torture him. Jaden was walking slowly towards him, the sneer he had been wearing on his lips since the start of the battle no longer there, replaced by a complete void of feelings.

Why couldn't he fight like before? What was different, wrong? Why wasn't his body responding like when he was a simple ninja? The lack of training? Concentration? He couldn't keep up with Jaden. The guy had probably been training all his life and Gaara had had a pause in training after becoming a Kazekage. He was determined not to ask Shukaku for help after all the nights when the tailed beast scolded him endlessly about everything and he couldn't leave Suna in Jaden's hands.

God, he hated to make such decisions in such short periods of time.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters.**

**This one is with a dedication for zender harris because it's the second chapter I submit today... it's a personal record...**

**Chapter seven: Glass Scenery**

"How did it feel, Kazekage-sama?"

Gaara glared at him, having no idea about what Jaden was talking. He had to look in his eyes to see what he was talking about. Burning, burning him from the inside, curiosity, but more than just curiosity, jealousy.

"To kiss her." he explained patiently, his chakra like a raging storm around his body.

Gaara didn't reply, his entire body hurting like shit. To his surprise, instead of finishing everything while he still couldn't move because of the broken ribs pricking his lungs with every breath and the smallest move, Jaden knelt in front of him to be at his level and gently caressed his cheek with one slender white hand, looking in his eyes. The red head pulled back and spat blood, wiping it away from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand.

Jaden stood up, narrowing his eyes. Skeletons began to rise from the ground, like the dead coming back to life and out of their coffins. Gaara saw Suna full of those creatures, all glowing at him with their green lights in the black orbs, their bodies animated by visible green chakra, sparkling in the night like thousands of moving torches. The ninja turned his back to Gaara and spoke again.

"What should I do with you? Killing you would be such a pity. You could be my loyal servant."

His red eyes pierced the darkness to Gaara's aquamarine eyes, looking at him with some sort of kindness, with something gentle and good. God, he hated that look. It wasn't fake, just not fit to Jaden's position. He didn't need his mercy. He couldn't bare see it in his eyes, burning his flesh, driving him mad. Along with the bells. Their sound had become weaker, but still jingled endlessly inside his head.

Jaden frowned and stopped, holding his hand out towards the skeletons to make them stop shaking their jaws, silence filling the cold air. Gaara listened himself. Something. What? Now he could see it. The skeletons moved their heads as mist began to make their glowing bodies dim, the Kazekage heard Jaden's angry growl and realised that this was his chance to escape.

Ignoring the pain, he quickly made some hand signs and disappeared into a whirlwind of sand, opening his eyes to find himself on the balcony of the tower of Suna, looking down at the thick mist below, covering the streets entirely, the skeletons being simple moving green shadows. Now was his chance to destroy them all by crushing them under sand. Only two problems: firstly, it would destroy the village and secondly, Jaden's skeletons must have absorbed some of his chakra by touching him and he didn't have enough for Sand Coffin and Desert Funeral. Shukaku had been stubbornly refusing to help and now he was gone again to sleep, as it usually did when Ai came. Damn tailed beast. Did that mean that Ai was there?

He smelled the scent of blood and stood up, holding a hand over the place where his broken ribs where pressing against his lung. He hoped everybody else was okay underground. Damn, he was not going to let anything happen to Suna and the villagers! He couldn't. He had promissed to himself not to let anyone else hurt him or the ones he cared about ever again. He was willing to respect that promise.

The smell of blood came to him again, making him turn around. Where did it come from? It wasn't his blood because he was able to make the difference between his blood and somebody else's. Though it was familiar somehow... the wind came through his hair, making him close his eyes, remembering somebody's hands running through that red hair without trembling, without making stiff moves.

He shook his head and looked down again. That mist was not natural. Happily, he had managed to hide his chakra before disappearing, so that Jaden couldn't find him easily. Thanks to that mist he had earned a little more time. But mist needed someone whose affinity was water and he didn't know anybody with that affinity willing to help him defeat such a ninja. What were those skeletons anyway? His bloodline limit? It felt creepy thinking about Ai in the middle of such creatures.

Bells rang again in his mind, echoing. Gaara closed his eyes, feeling the blood scent closer and closer. He exhaled slowly, calming himself down and when he dared to open his eyes and inhale, there she was, right beside him, looking down with her deep blue eyes. He wanted to call her name but his lips wouldn't move for him this time, denying his wish. Only his eyes could still move on her, every other sense relying on his sight to survive her presence.

Her hair was a little wet, silvery-white strands creating a net on her back, despite the calm ocean, her eyes were hiding something, burning with excitement, freedom... something was wrong. She was wearing a beautiful black kimono with a silvery river drawn on it and golden fireflies glowing around the water stream like the obi tied around her abdomen, illustrating the most beautiful night. On her body. No, behind that something was wrong.

Blood. Blood stained the long, large sleeves and the front of the kimono and golden obi. She didn't look at him, but her lips moved and he could barely hear what she said because of his surprise to see her there, like that, at that moment.

"Do you have enough chakra to create deep cracks around the village's walls?" she asked in a gentle, almost whispered tone.

"How deep?" his own voice sounded unrecognisable to him.

"Reach the underground lakes."

He looked inside himself for chakra and became one with the sand surrounding the village walls, making it split, crack, deeper and deeper, hoping for nothing more than a solution to get rid of all those skeletons and save Suna. God, where was the demon that he had been for so many years now? Why was it hiding since he had met this girl? What was so special about her? The fact that they were alike? That they had the same symbol marking their lives forever? Were they meant to share it?

Gaara saw her eyelashes slowly going down to meet the pale skin of her cheek, chakra now visible around her like an aura, but still impossible to detect, pale blue, increasing slowly, fluidly, he could now feel its warmth and couldn't stop stare at how she looked with her chakra around her. Like an angel. Could he, a demon, claim this angel?

Her hands moved rapindly into some fluid hand signs and the earth shook once, almost unnoticeably, then he saw something sparkling around the walls, rising to the sky slowly, with the same movement with which Ai's long eyelashes had kissed her cheeks, only that it was going up instead of going down to meet the sand. What was she doing? Gaara wanted to ask her but he wasn't sure that disturbing her would have been okay.

It was a jutsu for sure but he had never seen anything like it. It was not a genjutsu or ninjutsu. Then? He stopped for a moment, thinking how many questions this girl had brought to his mind ever since he had seen her for the first time. How many headaches to answer them all... how many nights spent with thinking about the mystery that surrounded her and brother like a veil he couldn't get through.

Now he could see. The water was starting to form some kind of dome, sealing the entire village under a dome of water. He couldn't see this, but outside the dome, more and more layers started to build the huge water construction, reinforcing it. Ai opened her eyes when the eight layer, and the last, stopped completely from moving and merging with the other seven.

Gaara wondered how could she keep that enormous water dome standing because making water stand on its own, even chakra infused water, was not that easy becase water had to move. Ai changed her position from the previous hand signs in another delicate dance with her white hands, then stopped, her chakra moving at a faster pace, alowing her to use it properly.

The Kazekage felt even colder than before and looked at the dome. Its color was starting to fade, the ripples froze and every single drop stopped from falling. Ai had frozen the dome entirely, from the base to the very top, in less than five minutes.

His eyes dropped on a silhouette standing on a roof. He could see the sneer on Jaden's face even from that distance. His white cloak was dusty and chakra was still surrounding his body entirely.

"Gaara..."

Ai's voice sounded surreal in the night, closed into an ice dome.

"Crush this dome with your sand." she murmured softly, her cheeks turning pink because of the cold pricking the sensitive skin.

"But..."

"Don't let the sand fall with the dome. I promise everything else will be alright."

Gaara nodded and called the desert sand from outside, although it was a bit hard to pass through Ai's ice and chakra barrier, then smashed it mercilessly to the dome, making the earth shake.

"Do it again!" her voice came from his left.

The sand hit again, this time with more fury and he could see an angry twisted expression on Jaden's face. The dome cracked, shivers of ice falling down on the streets, none of them on the houses, just where the skeletons were. Ai was still controling the frozen water since it was chakra infused and could direct the shivers towards their targets.

"Tell me..." he said, making the sand hit again. "What kind of jutsu was this?"

"Kinjutsu." she answered flatly, like she didn't even care.(A/N: kinjutsu means forbidden jutsu)

"Did you know I could have you killed for using those jutsus? Where did you learn them anyway?"

"Kinjutsus are the only jutsus I know. I have been trained to use them from an early age." the girl replied, directing bigger blocks of ice towards Jaden's chakra skeletons.

Gaara couldn't believe what she was saying. In the wrong hands, those jutsus could have helped destroying the entire world! The punishment for using, or even learning one of those jutsus was death and no less, in all the ninja villages and Ai couldn't be more careless about that. But after all, her kinjutsu had done its job.

The entire structure fell and it was Ai's turn to crash everything onto the heads of the skeletons, making them let out some weird sounds, long and painful. Everything had happened under his own eyes, destroying every little piece, bone and glowing green light of the skeletons. Jaden was now just a lonely figure on a roof.

A rain of shivers, glowing in the moonlight, crashing one after another in a beautiful melody of bells.

"He doesn't have enough chakra to create those skeletons again." Ai said to him slowly. Gaara nodded and disappeared into a whirlwind of sand after she had gave him half of her chakra for him to be able to fight her brother. She looked at her blood stained sleeves and her eyes shivered just a little, the lights in them going off only for a second.

Ai embraced her shoulders and remained silent, watching the fight between her brother and Gaara. How could have this been any worst? At least Gaara's loved ones were safe. The battle was going to end with a clear victory and she would be cursed for eternity, because sins go by the blood and oh, God, her blood was sinful. Disgusted by the touch of the semi dried blood on her kimono she threw it away, remaining only in her simple white kimono in the cold night, lips moving to whisper the same thing on and on, like a poem. "Sins go by the blood."


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters.**

**Chapter eight: Darkness of the Real World**

Wasn't that what their clan had been teaching them from the moment they were born? Sins go by the blood. A murderer takes his victim's sins upon him. Loving to hate was the only feeling they were supposed to have. Keep the bloodline limit inside the family to make it stronger. The rules continued to go on and the last of them simply said "Respect all the other rules."

Jaden let a smile rest on his lips. He didn't want to fight any more. Not for something he knew he couldn't win anyway. His sister had closed the door completely behind her, leaving him alone in the old, cold prison of every Ronfell. Ai had never had a psychic prison, only a physical one. Now that she had gotten rid of it, she was free, unlike him. He felt pathetic, weak and controled by the history of his clan.

Still, he would go to the very end of it. He created a weak replica of one of his basic jutsus and waited for Gaara to respond, which he did, hitting Jaden with his sand, crushing him against a wall. The ninja fell in the dust, spitting sand and blood, his beautiful white hair spread around his head in a silvery mess, still beautiful despite the harsh desert sand running through it.

He didn't want to get up, he wanted Gaara to end it once and for all because he was not strong enough to suffer that much, to suffer from such a terrible pain. Losing the only person he wanted to share his life with because of some foolish dreams of his dead family. None of that mattered now. He almost smiled when the Kazekage's sand lifted his body in the air, holding him in a ferm, but not painful grip.

Jaden's forehead was a minor obstacle in the way of his blood, which started to flow in small streams, on his cheeks and dripping on the white cloak, staining the symbol of the Ronfell clan. Some drops fell on the sand as well, some reddened his long strands of hair. Red eyes, red blood warming them.

"Go on, finish this." he said in a low, confident voice.

Before Gaara could say his 'no' Ai's hand froze in the soft material of his blood stained sleeve and he stopped, looking only at Jaden, who was now staring at the earth. He didn't have the courage to look in his sister's eyes. Anything but not that.

"Look at me." she said, letting go of Gaara's sleeve to make a step towards her brother. "Please."

Jaden shook his head and tears started to from in the corners of his eyes, falling with the blood on his cheeks. He felt a hand under his chin and closed his eyes at the touch of his sister's velvet skin. He opened them like under a spell and saw her other hand going through his hair, sounds of jingles filling his head. Ai's oceanic eyes were shining in the light of a distant sun, one he would never be able to see or feel, because he was not capable of...

"I love you, Jaden." she whispered to his ear, her lips touching the shell just for a moment. She loved him because he was her brother, not because she had been forced to love him and nobody else. It was different from the love she had for Gaara and he knew that well, but the happiness of seeing her so gentle and beautiful for him overwhelmed him. "That's why I won't let you torture yourself through this life." Ai continued, making him jump slightly at the contact between the sharp kunai she had hidden in her kimono's sleeve and his chest. It was more surprise than pain. In fact, he didn't feel pain at all and smiled when he saw a smile blossom on her lips. Her first smile ever.

Her hand dropped the kunai, starting to tremble uncontrolably. Gaara went to her and waited. Jaden was dead, his face so peaceful that he almost seemed to be an angel. Ai turned her face to him, a tear whispering words of comfort on her cheek, like a falling star. She made astep towards him and let her forehead rest on his neck while his arms wrapped around her protectively, sunlight burning around them in wild waltz.

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He kept staring at the ceiling for an hour after everybody had gone to bed. Gaara didn't feel like going outside, mostly because there was a sandstorm raging through the village and it didn't seem like it would just go away if he asked it to. Alone again in the darkness, staring at the walls in the middle of the night... one month after Jaden had died. Ai was living with him and his siblings since she had nowhere else to go and it didn't bother him at all anyway... sometimes she would join him on the roof at night, silent most of the times, sometimes in his arms, sometimes on the other side of the roof... he would never be able to understand the nature of women...

Gaara winced when he heard a small creak but didn't move. Something warm sneaked under the blanket with him and also stared at the ceiling before turning towards him. He looked at Ai and brushed his fingers against her cheeks.

"Is there something wrong?"

She shook her head.

"I want to tell you."

"What?" he asked curiously.

"What do you want to know?"

"..."

"I..." she started and Gaara could see her lowering her eyes. "My brother and I are the result of five hundred years of incest..."

Ai took a deep breath before continuing.

"My family always believed that if we kept our bloodline in our family it would become stronger. Contrary to what they believed, our kekkai genkai started to fade more and more with each generation and we ended up with nothing, after five hundred years of sins and inner wars. My grandmother survived your father's hatred for the sinful blood of our clan and raised Jaden and I the same way she had been raised as a child. It was no longer a hunt for the perfect kekkai genkai, but a tradition to be respected no matter what. My mother and father, twin brother and sister, married and we were born. Jaden was older than me. Mother had never truly agreed with the incestial tradition. As a baby, Jaden was frail and weak, certainly not to be worth to be a member of our family. Father had the same concept as the rest of the elders and most of his cousins and siblings. He forced my mother to give birth to a second child and wanted to kill the first, saying that he was too weak to stay alive. My mother never accepted and threatened them all to kill herself if they killed Jaden. They were disappointed to see that I was a girl but accepted me as a hope for the entire clan." she chukled slightly. "They were even planning to marry me with one of my cousins when the age would have been right. My mother died giving birth to me and her last wish was to name me Ai, as a symbol of the love she and the other women of the clan had never been allowed to have, as a symbol of the freedom she had craved for so long and she wanted it all for me. Grandmother couldn't deny her last wish and granted it, although she always hated my name and pronounced it different from other words, like a mock. She hated it even more when I started to think for myself and do whatever they considered to be wrong. They locked me up for some years because they wanted me to let go of my feelings and I froze inside myself, showing nothing to them or to myself. To their great surprise Jaden soon became one of the most powerful memebers of the clan and they immediately gave up to me, although some of my aunts were told to continue my training with kinjutsus. It seemed the only thing I was capable of beside being disobedient because I couldn't even create shadow clones of myself. Because of some of my father's fears about the Fourth Kazekage, he sent my brother, my grandmother and I away, worrying for the safety of our clan. His fears came to life the night they were all slaughtered mercilessly."

"Where is your grandmother now?"

Ai remained silent. He waited but that answer never came. Her hand sneaked on his neck, making him shiver and turned to her, gently kissing the soft lips he had been wanting to feel for some time, since their last kiss had been two weeks before. She responded to that, her body moving through the sheets like a feline's, twisting and turning under his attention. Just like two children playing hide and seek under the blankets of their imaginary worlds.

So much suffering for one single person to handle. Just like his. He hold his hand out through the dark, looking for her with his eyes closed under the warm, soft blanket and he couldn't find her. He was afraid that he would soon wake up and find out that it had all been a dream, but her hand reached his and pulled him closer into another kiss, dancing with him in the comfortable bed, a wonderful ballet in the jingles of imaginary bells...


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters.**

**It's written in **_**italics **_**because it's a flashback. This chapter explains why Ai's kimono was stained with blood, even if I bet you have realised yourselves until now...**

**Chapter nine: Recollection**

_A tear of rain fell into the water, rippling. Another one hit her cheek with a single cold touch. Rain began to pour around her as she stood up in the pond, pulling her wet kimono to wipe off the rain drop from her cheek. She could hear it splash everywhere around her, creating a beautiful music. She hated it. _

_Ai walked out of the cold water on the grass and went under the cover of the house's roof, her arms limp on the sides of her body, hair falling in elegant strands on her back, slightly curled by the water. Tiny drops of water were dripping on the wooden floor, leaving dark spots of cold. _

"_Don't be so sad, _Ai_... Jaden'll be back soon." the old women spoke from behind her paper screen. "That Gaara or whatever his name is... he'll know death soon. You brother will take care of that." she let out a small chuckle. "Dear child, this 'romance' is of no good to you. Look what it has done to you! You're weak and pathetically stubborn. Do you think being so cold to your family can help repair your mistake? Do you realise that you have broken the rules __**again**_Ai_? Tell me the last rule of this clan."_

_Her lips moved slightly, another drop of water dripped on the floor with an unbearable thud and she finally departed her lips, letting out a calm, fluid sentence._

"_Respect all the other rules or die."_

"_That's a good girl. You would have been dead by now if it hadn't been for me to save your worthless little life. Is this your gratitude to me? Ignoring the tradition? Being disobedient more than before? Do you remember the time when you were just a little girl? Three years old, my child, and you acted like a true member of our clan. Dignity and elegance. What changed you, my dearest girl? What made you change your mind about life so suddenly and wrong? You were told the truth from the very beginning. Were you upset because your mother died and only left you your name and her sins because you killed her by entering this world?" another chuckle shook the old body. "Are you afraid of hell, my dear? Are you afraid of what tortures might be awaiting for you there? Alone? Without your precious _Gaara_?"_

_She spoke his name with the same disgust which she used for her name. Ai moved her hands on the wet material of the white kimono and unstuck it it from her skin, letting it fall heavily on the floor, revealing her naked body to the rain. _

_Ai went back outside, in the heavy rain, entered the pond and took water in her palms, puring it on her white face. Her grandmother made a move and the floor creaked under her wheight. _

"Ai_? What are you doing?" _

_The silence in the house had become unbearable. What was that little damn brat planning now? _

"_Why don't you go help your brother? Be there with him when he claims _Gaara_'s title. I'm sure he would be delighted to see you by his side!" _

_She heard light steps and saw the girl's slender silhouette, calming down a little. Something was in the air and it was not just the smell of rain. It was something that only she could feel, creeping up to her heart, making her old bones freeze. _

"Ai_!" she demanded. "Will you talk to me?" _

_The old woman heard the rustle of silk kimono and obi tied up, then silence. It was coming closer and closer, hurrying to her heart. She stared through the paper screen, trying to see what kimono was Ai wearing. Her eyes narrowed in concentration and the girl's shadow knelt in front of the paper creen, waiting silently on the floorboard. _

"_What are you doing now, you long lost child?" her eyes popped out. Black kimono ilustrating a silvery river with fireflies and golden obi. It couldn't be. Were her eyes playing tricks to her? She rememberd as if it had been the day before, more like 15 days, one for every one of the last 15 years. _

"Ai_?" she asked, perfectly aware that her voice sounded weak and perhaps even a little frightened. "What's that kimono you're wearing?" _

_The old woman didn't need an answer because she knew it herself. It was the only kimono she worn in the day of her mother's death, at her every birthday in fact. She refused to wear any other kimono in that certain day of the year. Identical versions of the same kimono, bigger with every year that passed. The crone froze. Five more weeks until that day. Why was she wearing the kimono?_

"**Ai**_!"_ _the woman called for her niece, hoping that she would recognise the angry tone and answer. There was only silence coming from the other side of the paper screen and the old woman angrily stared at the feeble shadow behind it. "You little nuisance." she spat. "You ungrateful creature! Blight in your eyes! You're just a whore, like your mother! She never knew to appreaciate everything this family did for her and for you! Listen to me and listen well! __**I think I have tolerated your behavior more than enough! You WILL obey to me or I'll make your life a living hell for the rest of my life!**__"_

_The paper screen froze and broke in an instant, falling like glass on the floor, between the two, the ugly, wrinkled crone and the snow white queen looking at her with voided eyes, hands in her lap. _

"_I was born in hell... oba-chan." her calm voice barely whispered, expressionless face and nothingness in the two oceanic lights that were her dark eyes. _

_The crone felt her body freezing in horror._

"_You let me drown in my own tears for so long I don't have any more to set free on my cheeks. You made me a piece of nothing, a dead place filled with ice and void. Your ears never had time to hear my cry of pain, your eyes refused to see my suffering and your mind enjoyed it. Enjoyed seeing me broken on the floors, smashing my fists agains the walls until blood would stain them with violent red drops, killing myself, my very soul, to survive in this family. Welcome to __**my**__ hell. Oba-chan."_

"_A-a... _Ai_... what..."_

"_This is the moster you've created." Ai murmured softly, standing in front of the hag. She bent her body to reach the woman's cheek and placed a kiss on the wrinkled skin, whispering while her blue eyes searched painfully thorugh the crone's black, hollow and horrified eyes. "Are you proud of me now, oba-chan?"_

"_I... I..." _

_The girl looked down at her. _

"_Say my name." she commanded. _

"Ai."

_A sharp, huge icicle, similar to an elegant sword, pinned her body to the wall, threatening to go straight through her heart. The girl shook her head and the ice sword went deeper than enough to make a superficial cut, piercing through the woman's flesh, making her let out a cry of pain. _

"_You'll burn in hell forever for doing this!"_

"_Oh, I am ready to go there. I have the sins of many generations in my blood, remember? Sins go by the blood, oba-chan. Say my name and I might do it quick and painlessly."_

"_I... I'm s-sorry... _Ai!" _the woman muttered, her face twisting under the pain in her chest._

"_Not good enough." the girl said calmly, moving the sword up, blood gushing from the deep wound. "Is it really that hard to pronounce the word you contempt so much? Call me back from the hell you've sent me in years ago! Do it!" she demanded, her sword dancing again in the crone's chest. _

"_Aaah!" she panted, holding her breath. "No! Please, s-stop... A-Ai." _

_Ai's hand made a single move, the sword went in an out in less than a second and a little blood escaped the crone's mouth, rolling to her chin. _

"_A-a-ai... chan..." she whispered while Ai's warm body knelt and embraced her grandmother for the last time, leaving her dead against the wall. She looked again before leaving, the last ghost haunting her now dead, burning in hell, waiting for her on the other side._

"_What would life be without death to give it sense?" _


	10. Epilogue

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters.**

**I know it's short but it's an epilogue, right? I usually make epilogues short. So, liked this story? I know Gaara wasn't quite himself but love can change a lot of things. In my opinion, that's what he'd look like facing his greatest enemy: love. If you have different opinions, don't hesitate in typing 'em down on the screen and post them or send a review of this story. L.A.L.-live a little-through your characters (and, if you can adapt, through the characters from Naruto) to make them seem real. Well, that's what I do. I hope it's better than the way I see things... Okay, enough talking. Enjoy.**

**Epilogue: Sunset Village**

His hands moved over the surface of the stone banisters of the balcony, looking over Suna with his blue eyes. The sunset light bathed it in gold and gentle red, sand glittering over the walls. What peace and beauty. How could people find the desert so ugly, lifeless and useless? How could they not see such beauty? He could stay there forever, daydreaming from his room's huge balcony, but he was a Kazekage and he had things to do, among other 'titles'.

"Gaara..."

Ai's voice made him turn his head and curve his lips in a slight smile. He still didn't know how to smile. He felt stupid everytime he tried but he continued to practice, supported by his siblings and most of all, by Ai, because in her presence he could smile without feeling like the world's biggest grinning idiot. The girl's arm enchained his, the setting sun making her beautiful face look like pure gold whispering shadows.

"What are you thinking about?" she asked, looking in his gentle eyes.

"You." he replied. "You're so beautiful."

"Okay, I don't know who you are, but I demand that you bring my Gaara back!" she said, smiling and giving him a small peck on his lips.

"**Your **Gaara? When have you become so possesive?"

Ai smiled and took his hand, feeling the golden ring around his finger as well as she felt hers. She let her head rest on his shoulder and he caressed her cheek and tangled his fingers in her silvery hair, playing with it. He had no sand armor when he was with her. He didn't need one. It seemed almost an insult to use it against her skin, knowing that she wouldn't protest.

They felt watched and turned around to see a small figure staring at them with big, black ringed aquatic eyes and white tousled hair spread around his head like an angel's nimb. Ai let go of Gaara's arm and knelt in front of the child, smiling while caressing his cheek.

"You were supposed to be sleeping, Leon." she said to him playfully. "Do you want to stay here?"

"No, Temari said she'd train me when I get up so I've got to go." the three year old said, turning around.

Ai chuckled and looked at Gaara who embraced her and claimed her lips into a kiss. He had almost forgotten it was 19th of January, his birthday. Of course, Temari and Kankuro had made sure there would be a huge party and all the people from Suna were invited. God, he hated such things and he knew that Ai hated them too. Wait, if Leon had training with Temari what about that party the blondie had been organising for months?

"Ai, what about the..."

"Called off." she replied before he could finish. "It can wait for another few days."

"But why... who..."

"I did. I wanted to spend some time with you and yes, I am being selfish but I don't want to share you with anybody tonight. Besides, you had a long, long day. How about some traditional ramen and a good night of sleep?"

"Sounds like the best thing I've ever had in the last few weeks..." he sighed. "Thank you, Ai. Now I am the happiest Kazekage ever. Don't expect a grin, I'm still working at my smile."

She laughed and tousled his silk-like hair even more, looking in his eyes.

"How's Shukaku?" she asked. "Still angry with you?"

"He's still shy when you're around. He doesn't interrupt me when I'm talking to you and he doesn't ask me to kill any more. I guess it's the best he'll ever be. Are you okay? You look a little pale."

"I'm fine." she murmured, turning her head to Suna, watching the golden sand glittering in tiny particles in the sunlight. "How beautiful. How could anyone hate such beauty?"

Gaara simply shook his head with another smile and pulled her closer.

"Hey!" he winced, walking his hand over her stomach to her lower abdomen. "What's this supposed to mean?"

"Uhm... I ate too much!" she smiled, blushing at him touching her belly. Gaara gave her a suspicious look.

"You..." he started "... haven't eaten anything all day, Ai."

The beautiful snow white queen in his arms winked and smiled in the same way she smiled when she had told him about baby Leon, four years ago, in the most beautiful spring he had ever had. He embraced her happily and felt to overwhelmed by the moment to say anything else. It wasn't like him at all, but since she had entered his life he used to be very unlike the demon Gaara. An angel was now his.

"Happy birthday, my love." she whispered to his ear.

**- The End-**


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